US Informs Turkey About Start of Raqqa Campaign in Cooperation With Kurds - PM

The United States has informed the Turkish authorities about the start of an operation to liberate Syria's Raqqa from Daesh, in cooperation with Syrian Kurdish forces, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Sunday.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — According to Yildirim, the US-backed operation in coordination with Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the military branch of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), started on June 2 and Turkey had been informed about the operation before it started.

"They [the United States] told us that it was not an option but an obligation [to cooperate with PYD and YPG in the Raqqa operation] and that the tactical cooperation with them would not be maintained for long after the [Raqqa] operation," Yildirim told reporters in Ankara, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

According to the prime minister, Turkey disapproves the US way of going about the operation, but Washington reassured Ankara that US weapons used by the Kurds would not threaten Turkey's security.

On Friday, he YPG said Kurdish forces would start advancing on Raqqa within days.

On May 9, the US Defense Department announced that President Donald Trump had approved a plan to arm Kurdish YPG in order to better fight against terrorism in Syria despite objections from Turkey.

Ankara considers the YPG to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror group in Turkey, the United States and the European Union. However, the PYD and the YPG, as well as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been receiving support from the United States in fighting Islamic State terrorists in Syria.

In May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Washington and held talks with Trump, during which the two sides discussed the Kurdish issue among other topics.